Re: Best viewer available?

Right now, Singularity seems to be the most drama-free mesh-capable viewer going that has the advanced features most long-time users expect. For everyone else, there's Viewer 3.

I'm sorry, but when you can help me solve why I only get FIVE FRAMES PER SECOND with V3, compared to the FORTY FRAMES PER SECOND I get with a Viewer that you have on several occasions tried to start dramas about, then you MIGHT be able to include me in "everyone else."

And if Singularity has the "advanced features most long term users expect," why are not most long term users using it?

(No disrespect meant here about or toward Singularity. I fully support that a person should use what works best for them, "Your World, Your Choice Of Viewers.")

Re: Best viewer available?

I'm sorry, but when you can help me solve why I only get FIVE FRAMES PER SECOND with V3, compared to the FORTY FRAMES PER SECOND I get with a Viewer that you have on several occasions tried to start dramas about, then you MIGHT be able to include me in "everyone else."

Driver issue? Using Windows with Aero enabled? Statsbox showing inflated numbers to get the userbase to STFU? Those seem to be the usual suspects.

Perrie Juran wrote:

And if Singularity has the "advanced features most long term users expect," why are not most long term users using it?

Why? You can't have 'em in any viewer anyway, since it interferes with the common experience. Disembodied parts and accessories flying around because you're using something that only people using the same viewer can render right isn't a good thing.

Why? You can't have 'em in any viewer anyway, since it interferes with the common experience. Disembodied parts and accessories flying around because you're using something that only people using the same viewer can render right isn't a good thing.

Re: Best viewer available?

Are you using an ATI card? If so, try disabling VBO in Preferences > Graphics > Hardware. For some inexplicable reason, having this enabled with the latest few versions of LL's viewer causes a drop of 30 FPS and more for a few people. Besides me, I know a couple of others this affected and disabling VBO fixed the huge drop in FPS for them as well when I told them. Took me days to discover why I was only getting 5 FPS. Now V3 runs fine.

Caine: I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.

Why? You can't have 'em in any viewer anyway, since it interferes with the common experience. Disembodied parts and accessories flying around because you're using something that only people using the same viewer can render right isn't a good thing.

All viewers can see both multiple attachments and multiple wearables (clothing layers) perfectly well. Multiple clothing layers -- which is what people normally mean by "multiwearables" -- have been visible ever since LL introduced them in (I think) 2.1.

Why? You can't have 'em in any viewer anyway, since it interferes with the common experience.

What are you saying? Of course we can use multiwearables (prim clothing items) and also multiple items on a clothing layer, including tattoos layer and alpha layer.

Linden Lab viewer has those features, and so do many third party viewers.

Linden Lab and their viewer sets the standard for the "common experience". If somebody uses outdated viewer which does not support those features it's their own choice. Those users are just breaking their own experience. Their choise of viewer does alter how the rest with updated viewers see the world.

Or are you suggesting perhaps that Linden Lab viewer and those third party viewers which are up to par with Linden Lab viewer should be downgraded to the level of some viewer which does not have those features?That would be very odd indeed!

Re: THE ANSWER IS...

As several have said there is no best viewer. It depends too much on your computer hardware and personal preferences.

I suspect Inara and I have used about every viewer there is. Inara does an excellent list of viewers with version info and they are grouped by user interface. So, if you like V2/3 UI or V1 UI, you can tell which is which. See: Viewer Round-up page. Inara and I both do reviews of viewers. I separate the reviews by brand. I do them as mood moves me.

See: http://blog.nalates.net/ - In the menu is a VIEWER item with the viewers I frequently review. You can use search or category to find viewers not in the drop down.

Nirans Viewer is popular with a small core of fans. It is an experimental viewer. The User Interface is non-standard. You will have to learn where things are. Plus it changes as NiranV experiments with UI changes. It is a bleeding edge viewer. Any single release may be a crash disaster. The good thing about Nirans' is there will be a fix out in a few hours. It is some what a machinamists' and photographers' viewer.

Firestorm is the most used viewer in SL. They provide the most user support and debatablly the best. They also build Phoenix, but Phoenix is dying out and at some point they will stop upgrading it. Firestorm is a power user's viewer.

Dolphin 3 is a good viewer. It is very V3 like User Interface. I'll say it is a good round about general purpose viewer. It has some tweaks to make its Merchant's Outbox work better with the Market Place. Its Linux and Mac versions are said to have working Merchant Outboxes.

Cool VL is built by one of the renowned viewer dev's in the SL community. Henri does what many consider impossible. Cool is a V3 viewer with a V1 user interface. This viewer is for those that want to keep the V1 interface but run the new code.

Singularity is a popular viewer with a core group of fans. Inara nor I have looked at it in months. It is a V1 UI running on the Snowglobe 1.5 code, which I think I'll say is V2 code to keep it simple. But, it is a stable viewer and runs well on older hardware.

Exodus is intended to be a gamer's viewer. It too has some uncommon user interface differences. It is to be a performance oriented viewer with all the features needed by combat gamers. The development pace is a bit slow. I haven't seen many releases.

Zen I'll call a new kid on the block. It is a good viewer, but I found it incomplete. I haven't looked at it since January, so it had probably improved. Support is almost non-existent outside of SL. Reaching the dev in-world is the best bet.

Kokua is in the Alpha/experimental stage. It is intended to be a cross grid compatible viewer and replacement for Imprudence. It too is currently an incomplete viewer.

RLV is a special purpose viewer. You will probably hear it is for the BDSM crowd. It is, but it is not JUST for them. This is a viewer will special abilities. Most of its features are added to all the other viewers. This is one of the few viewers I have only used a little bit. I consider it to be much more interactive with SL than other viewers without RLV. It allows scripts to control actions in the viewer, which allows for some imaginative creations.

The easiest viewer to use is Linden Lab's main viewer. It requires the least knowledge and is the only viewer the Lab's support people will help you with.

I believe the current leading edge of SL tech can be found in the SL Dev Viewer, which is a pre-beta version used for testing new features and bug fixes. Its a poor choice for casual users. One needs to know what a viewer is SUPPOSED to do before using it, so you'll know when a version is broke.

Using Multiple Viewers

If you decide to try out more than one viewer, read: Second Life Clean Install. You do NOT necessarily need to do a clean install but it had the information you need to make your life with multiple viewers easier.